Ed Sheeran defends Taylor Swift after Nicki Minaj spat

ED Sheeran has defended Taylor Swift after her Twitter spat with Nicki Minaj.

The feud between Taylor and Nicki erupted after the hip hop star bemoaned being nominated for just three MTV VMA awards, with her 'Feeling Myself' promo missing out entirely and 'Anaconda' being overlooked for the top prize, Video of the Year.

Taylor - who received nine nominations in total, including nods for Video of the Year and Best Female - felt Nicki's tweets were aimed at her due to her 'Bad Blood' promo being up for Video of the Year and replied: "I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot (sic)."

Ed has been quick to defend his pal, telling The Daily Telegraph: "I think everyone knows that Taylor has done nothing wrong in that situation.

"She didn't nominate herself for the awards. It's not her fault, she just made some good videos and people think they're good."

Referring to Nicki's tweet which read, "if your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year (sic)," Ed said: "I think the Minaj point is a bit redundant, her point is that you have to be skinny and white to get a video of the year nomination but Beyoncé's '7/11' is in there and that is celebrating the female figure in every form."

Nicki's and Taylor's feud inspired Bruno Mars and Ed to start their own faux-feud and Ed explained: "I've been wanting to do that for ages with someone but there isn't any one that I know that I cannot have to text them to tell them that this is actually a joke.

"When I saw Bruno do that, I knew he was joking and I know if I say anything I won't have to text him and ask him if he's offended by it with the short jokes."

Bruno originally tweeted: "Yo I want in on this twitter Beef!! VMAs is the new WWF!! @edsheeran F**k You! SHOW YOURSELF!!! @edsheeran (sic)"

And Ed was happy to rise to the challenge, warning his pop rival he would be defeated in the wrestling-style spat.

He said: "Any way we do dis you gon' come up short (sic)."

Bruno responded: "That Cut deep..U always know how to sheer me to the core. I can't believe we're Sheeran this in public. How dare u! (sic)."